A Light To Read By
by ShisoLoveli
Summary: Laxus has no problem getting any woman he wants. That is, until one morning, he decides to try his charm on Levy. She seems devastatingly unaffected. This is one romance story Laxus can't even begin to predict the ending of.


Written to take place just after the Grand Magic Games arc, so be warned about spoilers for Fairy Tail up to that point.

So not your typical pairing, but we all know Laxus is one selfish bastard.

* * *

It was a Friday morning, and despite the general cheerful ruckus in the guild around him, Laxus was in a foul mood.

Laxus was, quite simply, _fucking bored_.

It wasn't entirely his fault. Even though Gildarts had recently commanded his reinstatement to the guild before he left, Makarov had limited him to only taking regular missions. He claimed it was a probation period, and if Laxus showed good behavior his ability to go on S Class missions would be reinstated as well. Laxus thought that was a load of bullshit; he suspected the old man just didn't want him straying too far from him, which, admittedly, wasn't unreasonable, but still highly irritating.

So he'd been playing nicely and completing several missions a week, but right now he really didn't feel like going on another weak ass job to find some old lady's lost cat.

Laxus glanced around the room from his table. All his teammates were busy with their own agendas at the moment: Freed stood at the bar, openly flirting with Mirajane. Ever sat with Elfman, alternating between verbal bickering and physically slamming her fist into the side of his head. Bickslow, well, he was doing whatever the fuck he did with his dolls…. but hey, Laxus wasn't one to judge. Bickslow was as loyal a companion as he could hope for, so whatever abnormally dirty things he was into with the inanimate objects didn't bother Laxus in the least.

What was bothering Laxus was a lack of stimulation. Taking a cue from his amorous teammates, Laxus scanned his eyes around the room to consider his options.

His eyes landed on Cana, but he quickly retracted the thought. Even though they had, had a thing in the past, there was no fucking way he wanted to brawl with Gildarts as soon as the man came back. Gildarts was still in his over-protective parental mode since finding out Cana was his offspring. He owed Gildarts for getting him back into Fairy Tail, plus the fight would just be an unnecessary pain in the ass.

Mira was obviously off limits because of Freed.

Ever wasn't even an option. She was like a sister, albeit an over enthusiastic, follow-him-obsessively little sister, but as important to him as family.

His eyes roved over to Natsu's table, where the rather busty Celestial Mage sat. He weighed the pros and cons, her generous rack a definite pro, but ultimately decided against dipping a toe in that pond. Natsu, Gray, and Erza would be on his ass in seconds… and Erza-he already knew from past experience he didn't have a chance in hell to partake in anything other than a fight with her.

The water chick was wrapped so tightly around Gray, Laxus knew it would be entirely impossible to separate her from the man, and he just wasn't into having another male in his bed, however hot the chick was.

Bisca was off the radar. Even though he'd had a few rendezvouses with married woman before, he would never do that to a Fairy Tail comrade.

Lisanna was away on a mission, otherwise he thought he might go for it. She might have learned a few otherworldly things while in Edolas.

Laxus let out a frustrated huff, about to give up for the night, until his eyes strayed across a tiny mess of blue hair in the very corner of the room.

Levy, huh?

If he was honest with himself, he had never once checked her out as someone with potential. She was quite a bit younger than him, and while Laxus got around, he wasn't into any kinky lolli-shit, so she'd never even registered on his radar in his younger days. Then, even in recent years where she became old enough to be fair game, even though it was obvious by now she didn't have a thing for them, Jet and Droy had always been hovering around her; it hadn't seemed worth the trouble to put up with those two. Laxus could easily knock them out with one blow, but judging from the way they kept dogging after Levy, they were some persistent motherfuckers and he didn't want to even consider dealing with that on a daily basis.

Until now, that is.

Downing the rest of his beer, (he was already on his third despite it only being ten in the morning) he got up and made his way towards the booth that Levy sat in alone. Even though she was facing away from him, he could tell she was probably reading one of her books by the slightly forward inclination of her head.

Right before he reached her booth a vague thought in the back of his mind popped up, telling him she might have something going on with that ex-Phantom Lord dude, Gajeel. He pushed that thought away, if that were the case, as much as he didn't care for the other man, he would back off. Like him or not he was another member of Fairy Tail and that would be crossing the line, but since, at this particular moment, it was only a insubstantial suspicion so far, it didn't hurt to take a shot.

"Hey Levy".

Levy looked up at him her glasses slightly sliding down her nose, eyes glazed over, showing she was still thinking about what she had just read.

"Oh, uh, hi Laxus." She said cheerfully, once she realized who was in front of her.

"Mind if I sit down?" he asked, and before she could reply he took the seat across from her.

"Huh, oh, no." She said. She didn't look put off by his presumptuous actions, rather she had only a slightly curious look in her eye. Mild curiosity, but nothing more. Laxus had experienced enough women unravel before him, to know that the way Levy was looking at him held nothing more than slight puzzlement.

Her hand rested on the book in front of her, finger in place to mark where she left off. Laxus glanced at the page which was covered in entirely foreign shapes and symbols. He was actually able to recognize the script; he'd spent so much time seeing and listening to Freed ramble on about his runes as he wrote them it was completely impossible not to pick up some knowledge. Guess it would finally come in handy.

"Wow, that looks like some complicated ancient Otherion there." Laxus stated casually.

"Ah! It is, in fact, very complicated. It's old, very old. Some people theorize that is a subscript of the civilization that lived right before the time of the Dragons…" and with that she launched into a tirade about the ancient language. Laxus started to form a strategy in his mind, keeping one ear on her rune babble in case he had to snap back to attention quickly . He nodded his head every so often, giving her a noise of agreement or a slight smile to encourage her onward. It wasn't difficult, Freed got them same way when he talked about runes himself; Bickslow about a new doll or two in his collection; and Ever could go on and on about statues and plants she wanted.

Laxus was slightly undecided on how to play out this scenario. He was used to women getting hot and bothered when he was around. A well placed grin or smirk was enough to disarm even the most frigid woman. Flashing his abs always helped some, but he didn't get the feeling it would work on Levy. Besides the first few seconds of curiosity she had displayed when he came over, Levy was not showing any discomfort or even mild interest towards him; in fact she was talking on as though him coming over to strike up a conversation was a regular occurrence. Laxus rubbed the back of his neck in thought; he was pretty sure he could count the number of times they'd even spoken to one another with the fingers of a single hand, and even then he probably wouldn't need to use all of his digits.

Struck by some age-old inspiration, he threw out his opening move.

"So, " he interrupted her, pausing to make sure she heard him. When she fell silent from her book chatter to look at him questioningly he continued, "the real reason I came over here was because Freed's birthday is coming up and I'm pretty much at a loss on what kind of book to get him. I figured since you were so knowledgeable about this topic, you might be able to help me out a little? It is your _expertise _and all." He made sure to draw out the word 'expertise', even giving a slight lick of his lips as the word rolled out of his mouth. Women seemed really into reading into subtle gestures and subliminal shit like that.

It was a cliché suggestion, made even more cliché by the fact he was pretty sure Freed's birthday wasn't for almost six months, but hey, it seemed to fit the current situation. He paused, then let his trademark smirk fall across his face-women _loved_ that as well-before he finished with a smoothly suggestive, "If you help me out, I'll definitely make it _worth_ _your while_." To make sure she understood exactly what he meant, he even threw in a wink.

Levy blinked several times, her face blank. He could see the clogs in her mind practically smoking from whirring into overdrive as she thought over what he had just propositioned her with. Maybe that last bit had been a bit too much. However, Laxus wasn't one to back down from something he started. In fact, if he was going to do something he'd better damn well dominate at it.

He reached out a hand, letting the tips of his fingers skim across the top of the open book.

"Levy," He murmured, "Do you get what I'm asking?". He let his finger trail along the edge of the book. Back and forth. Back and forth. Slowly. Seductively. He watched as her gaze followed his movements, eyes thoughtful.

"OHHHH!" Her small fist suddenly banged onto the tabletop, slightly startling him from his concentration. Her eyes had widened to the size of saucers, as though she was just realizing something.

"I do know!"

Good. She _definitely_ got it then. Laxus gave another lick of his lips in anticipation.

"I do know," She repeated excitedly, a huge grin splitting her face, "I know just the place that has the perfect book."

Laxus almost face faulted.

Or maybe she was just _insanely _oblivious.

Regaining his composure quickly, Laxus shook off the momentary blunder. No, he knew how devastating he could be to women, they had been falling over themselves for him ever since he was a teenager. It was probably just from the fact that Levy needed some more gentle (or not so gentle) prodding since she had grown up all her life without him once ever glancing her way. She just needed to be shown the light.

That last thought had him smirking slightly to himself, or maybe _the lightening_.

After all, that was his specialty.


End file.
